Chapter Text
Thwack
Thwack
Thwack
Ruby was exactly where her sister expected her to be. Huddled in the maintenance shaft between the main reactor and the water purifier. Bouncing a rubber ball off of the wall and catching it. Most of the inhabitants didn't know how to access these passages but Yang had the advantage of her sister being the apprentice to the head of maintenance. Although even if she wasn't, Ruby's natural curiosity about all things mechanical would have led her to dragging her sister through every nook and cranny of the vault. At the moment however, Ruby’s natural curiosity and cheerfulness was dulled.
“You ok sis?” Yang asked, hesitantly.
“No” The reply was a short, clipped response. A far cry from the young girl's usual bubbly nature. An awkward throw sent the ball bouncing off course, careening into the network of pipes and metal grating that made up the passage. Her arm, poised to catch it, now slumped to the ground as she pulled her knees closer to her.
Yang sat next to her sister, reaching an arm out to wrap around her. She paused as she saw Ruby tense, before bringing it back to herself. “You're worried about him huh?”
“He's two weeks late, Yang.”
“He’s been on expeditions for longer than that before.”
“Never unscheduled Yang!” Her voice rose, her fear and frustration reaching a boiling point. She leapt to her feet, her hood falling from her face as she began to pace.
“He's not back yet and we don't know why and we don't even know what he's doing out there and they won't tell us anything about it and they won't even tell us how dangerous it is out there!” As she began speaking faster and faster her breath began to come out in short bursts, her eyes starting to well with tears.
Yang shot to her feet and wrapped her arms around her sister tightly, rubbing her back. Ruby struggled for a moment, before going limp as the tears began to fall.
“It's happening again Yang.”
Yang pushed her back a few inches to look her in the eye, “No. He's coming back Ruby, you have to believe that ok?”
The young girl didn't respond, allowing her sister to hold her for a few minutes without moving. “You have a shift to go to Yang.”
Yan sighed and considered, on the one hand she could ask for the day off, allowing her to keep an eye on her sister. But on the other she knew that doing so would likely only cause Ruby to feel guilty and worsen things as they were. “Fine, but you're not staying here by yourself, I'm leaving you with Vomit Boy.”
“You could call him by his real name you know” she said, a tiny smile now gracing her face.
“Yeah, but this is funnier” She replied, wearing her signature grin before turning around and walking down the passage “Cmon Rubes, I'd rather not keep Goodwitch waiting.”
“I'll catch up, I'm gonna grab my ball really quick, ok?” She ran off before waiting for a response. As she hurried towards where that ball had flown off to, she passed the water purifier for the vault. She had already learned how the entire machine worked, and as she ran her eyes over it, she remembered one of the early lessons that Dr. Oobleck had given her.
“Now Miss Rose, while this machine is a wonderful feat of modern engineering, it does have one fatal flaw. Unfortunately, due to a design oversight I'm sure, the entire system is dependent on one advanced microchip. It has no backup systems installed, and as such you must make sure that any maintenance done on it is only to occur once the water chip is removed. Understand? Good. now…”
Ruby stared at that all-important water chip now, with her uncle out missing in the wasteland and Overseer Ozpin refusing to send others out and for a moment had a horrible, treasonous idea.
“Ruby?” She heard her sister yell for her.
“Be there in a few minutes!” she yelled back.